So, Avengers: Infinity War has been and gone, and all six Infinity Stones have been revealed.

But their history remains pretty murky. How did they all end up in their final locations before the various MCU films revealed them again?

It's a fair guess that the Asgardians know a thing or two about the stones' past. The Reality Stone (aka the Aether) was hidden by Odin's father, Bor, and the Space Stone (aka the Tesseract) was concealed on Earth by Odin himself.

Sif and Volstagg deliver the Reality Stone to The Collector in Thor: The Dark World's mid-credits scene, observing that "it's not wise to keep two Infinity Stones so close together". They know what they're dealing with.

A new theory by Reddit user bubonis suggests that in the past, Odin was on the same mission as Thanos – to collect all the Infinity Stones and gain mastery over their infinite power. He learned of the Reality Stone from his father Bor, and even managed to acquire the Space Stone as he conquered the realms with his daughter Hela at his side.

He commissioned the dwarves of Nidavellir to make him a gauntlet to hold the stones – which explains why a prototype (the "fake") was in his vault.

But Odin then discovered that the only way to gain the Soul Stone was to sacrifice the thing he loved the most – ie his daughter, Hela. Unwilling to do so, he turned away from his plans and started to embrace a more peaceful way (as shown in Thor: Ragnarok). Baffled by his perceived weakness, Hela waged war on her old dad, which ended in her banishment.

Odin hid the Tesseract on Earth and Nidavellir never forged the Infinity Gauntlet – until Thanos came calling.

The theory nicely ties the history of Asgard and the Infinity Stones together – although we confess we have a couple of niggles. Why don't Odin and Hela react more strongly when they encounter the stones after so many years (Hela describes the Space Stone as simply "not bad")?

What do you think? A convincing theory or just a load of old Infinity Stones?